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MR. GARNET'S 



DISCOURSE 



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THE 

PAST AND THE PRESENT c^lO^o 

CONDITION, AND THE DESTINY, 



THE COLORED EACE: 

A DISCOURSE 

DELIVEEED AT THE FIFTEENTH ANNIVERSARY 

OF THE 

FEMALE BENEYOLENT SOCIETY 

OF TROY, N. Y., FEB. 14, 1848, 

BY 

HENRY HIGHLAND GARNET. 



TROY, N. Y.: 

STEAM PRESS OF J. C. KNEELAND AND CO. 

1848. 



TuoY, Feb. 22, 1848. 
Rev. Henry H. Garnet — 

Dear Sir : — The members of F. B. S., having listened 
to your discourse with great pleasure, and being desirous to present it to the 
Public, have requested us to solicit a copy for publication, and we trust, sir, that 
nothing will prevent you from granting our request. 
Most respectfully, &c., 

HANNAH B. RICH, President ; 
CHARLOTTE PUTMAN, Fee. Sec; 
LOUISA A. GIDEONS, Cor. Sec. 



Tkoy, Feb. 26, 1848. 
Lahies :— I have received your polite note of the 22d inst., and, while I con- 
sider myself fortunate in serving you acceptably, I deem it my duty to comply 
with your request. 

I am, Ladies, and ever hope to be, your friend and servant, 

H. H. GARNET, 
Mrs. H. B. Rich, 
Miss Charlotte Putman, 
Miss L. A. Gideons. 



ADDRESS. 



Ladies and Gentlemen : 

My theme is the Past and the Present condition, and 
the Destiny of the Colored race. The path of thought which 
you are invited to travel, has not as I am aware, been 
pursued heretofore to any considerable extent. The Pre- 
sent, is the midway between the Past and the Future. 
Let us ascend that sublime eminence, that we may view 
the vast empire of ruin that is scarcely discernable through 
the mists of former ages ; and if, while we are d .veiling 
upon the desolations that meet our eyes, we shall mourn 
over them, I entreat you to look upward and behold the 
bright scenery of the future. There we have a clear sky, 
and from thence are refreshing breezes. The airy plains 
are radiant with prophetic brightness, and truth, love, and 
liberty are descending the heavens, bearing the charter of 
man's destiny to a waituig world. 

All the various forms of truth that are presented to the 
minds of men, are in perfect harmony with the govern- 
ment of God. Many things that appear to be discordant 
are not really so ; for Avhen they are understood, and the 
mind becomes illuminated and informed, the imagined de- 
formities disappear as spectres depart from the vision of 



one who had been a maniac, when his reason letuu s^ 
r-God is the rock, his work is perfect-a God of tru h and 
without iniquity. Justice and judgment are the habita- 
tions of his ihrone, and mercy and truth go before his face. 
His righteousness is an everlasting righteousness, and his 

law is the truth." 

The truth will profit us nothing if we suffer it not to 
clothe us in our right minds-it returns without accom- 
plishing its high mission to us, if we refuse to let her lead 
us to the delectable mountain, from whence we can be- 
hold the pure stream of the law of Jehovah, flowmg from 
his throne, hailed by angel voices and the music of the 

- '^' irorder to pursue my subject I must, for the sake of 
distinction, use some of the improper terms of our tunes 
I shall, therefore, speak of races, when in fact there is but 
one race, as there was but one Adam. 

By an almost common consent, the modern world seems 
determined to pilfer Africa of her glory. It were not 
enough that her children have been scattered over the 
alobe°, clothed in the garments of shame-humdiated and 
oppressed-but her merciless foes weary themselves in 
plundering the tombs of our renowned sires, and in obli- 
terating their worthy deeds, which were inscribed by fame 
upon the pages of ancient history. 

The three grand divisions of the earth that were known 
to the ancients, were colonized by the three sons of Noah. 
Shem was the father of the Asiatics-the Africans descend- 
ed from Ham, and Japheth was the progenitor of the Eu- 
ropeans. These men being the children of one father, 
they were originally of the same complexion— for we can- 
not through the medium of any law of nature or reason, 
come to the conclusion, that one was black, another was 
copper-colored, and the other was white. Adam was a 



red man, and by what law of nature his descendants be- 
came dissimilar to him, is a problem which is yet to be 
clearly solved. The fact that the universal Father has va- 
ried the complexions of his children, does not detract from 
his mercy, or give us reason to question his wisdom. 

Moses is the patriarch of sacred history. The same 
eminent station is occupied by Herodotus in profane his- 
tory. To the chronicles of these two great men we are 
indebted for all the information we have in relation to the 
early condition of man. If they are incorrect, to what 
higher authority shall we appeal — and if they are true, then 
we may acquaint ourselves with the history of our race 
from that period, 

, " When yonder spheres sublime, 

Peal'd their first notes to sound the march of time." 

Ham was the first African. Egypt was settled by an 
immediate descendant of Ham, who, in sacred history, is 
called Mesraim, and in uninspired history he is known by 
the name of Menes. Yet in the face of this historical evi- 
dence, there are those who affirm that the ancient Egyp- 
tians v^ere not of the pure African stock. The gigantic 
stature of the Phynx has the peculiar features of the chil- 
dren of Ham — one of the most celebrated queens of Egypt 
was Nitocris, an Ethiopian woman ; yet these intellectual 
resurrectionists dig through a mountain of such evidence, 
and declare that these people were not negroes. 

We learn from Herodotus, that the ancient Egyptians 
were black, and had woolly hair. These people astonish- 
ed the world with their arts and sciences, in which they re- 
veled with unbounded prodigality. They became the 
masters of the East, and the lords of the Hebrews. No 
arm less powerful than Jehovah's, could pluck the children 
of Abraham from their hands. The plagues were mar- 
shalled against them, and the pillars of cloud and of fire, 



and at last the resistless sea. " Then the horse .and the 
rider, sank like lead in the mighty waters." But the king- 
dom of Ptolemys was still great. The most exalted mortal 
eulogiiim that could be spoken of Moses, was that he was 
learned in all the learning of the Egyptians. It was from 
them that he gathered the materials with which he reared 
'that graLid superstructure, partaking of law, poetry, and his- 
tory, which has filled the world with wonder and praise. 
jMournful reverses of fortune have passed over that illus- 
trious people. The star that arose in such matchless splen- 
dor above the eastern horizon has had its setting. But 
Egypt, Africa's dark browed queen, still lives. Her py- 
ramid tombs — her sculptured collumns dug from the sands 
to adorn modern architecture — the remnants of her once 
impregnable walls — the remains of her hundred gated 
city, rising over the wide-spread ruins, as if to guard the 
fame of the race that gave them existence, all proclaim 
what she once was. 

Whatever may be the extent of prejudice against color, 
as it is falsely called, and is so generally practiced in this 
country, Solomon, the most renowned of kings, possessed- 
none of it. Among the seven hundred wives, and the 
three hundred concubines, who filled his houses, the most 
favored queen was a beautiful sable daughter of one of 
the Pharoahs of Egypt. In order to take her to his bo- 
som, he trampled upon the laws of his nation, and incur- 
red the divine displeasure — for a Jew might not espouse 
any heathen or idolater who was not circumcised in 
heart. When he had secured her, he bowed his great in- 
tellect before her, that he might do her that homage which 
he paid to no other Avoman. Solomon was a poet, and 
pure love awakened the sweetest melody in his soul. To 
her iionor and praise he composed that beautiful poem 
called the Canticles, or Solomon's Song. For her he 



Avove that gorgeous wreath Avliich is unsurpassed in its 
kind, and with his own royal hand placed it upon her dark 
brow. Several persons are represented in the poem, and 
it is composed of an interesting coloquy. The reader is 
introduced to "the watchmen that went about the streets," 
and to " the daughters of Jerusalem," and to the bride 
and the groom, Avhich are the king and the beauteous 
Egyptian. It is not at all surprising that she who receiv- 
ed such distinguished marks of kingly favors, should en- 
counter the jealousy of the daughters of Jerusalem. They 
saw that the Egyptian woman had monopolised the heart 
of the son of David, and the royal poet represents his 
queen to say to her fairer but supplanted rivals : — 

I am black but comely, 

O ye daughters of Jerusalem, 

As the tents of Kedar, 

As the curtains of Solomon. 
Look not upon me, because I am black, 
Because the sun has looked upon me." 

Thus she speaks of the superiority which nature had given 
her over the women of Jerusalem. She was handsome, 
and like all handsome women, she kneAv it. 

The bride again speaks, and says to the bride-groom : — 

" I have compared thee, O my love. 

To a company of horses in Pharaoh's chariot." 

How inappropriate were this allasioa if it had been placed 
in the mouth of any one else but an Egyptian. To give 
the passage any other interpretation is virtually accusing 
Solomon of grosser ignorance than my reverence will al- 

loAV me to attribute to him. 

Professor Stowe and President Mahan, and others, agree 

m giving the following translation to another verse in the 

first chapter of the song, 

" Ere I was aware 

My soul was as the war-chariot 

Of my noble people." 



10 s 

The whole poem, without doubt, is nothing more than 
a brilliant out-burst of Solomon's love for his bride. 

Homer, the prince of epic poets, speaks of the Ethio- 
pians, and presents them at the feast of the gods. These 
men of sun-burnt faces, as their name implies, he calls the 
excellent Ethiopians. 

A distinguished scholar,* speaking of this passage in the 
Grecian's renowned poem, in the presence of an Ameri- 
can pedant, the young upstart seriously inquired if the 
Ethiopians were black ? " Most assuredly," answered 
the scholar. " Well," said the young republican, " had I 
been at that feast, and negroes had been placed at the table, 
I would have left it." " Had you been living at that time, 
returned the other, you would have been saved the trouble 
of leaving the table, for the gods would not have invited 
you." 

Such a man in such a banquet would have been as much 
out of place as an ass would be in a concert of sacred 
music. 

The interior of Ethiopia has not been explored by mo- 
dern adventurers. The antiquarian has made his way into 
almost every dominion where relics of former greatness 
have promised to reward him for his toil. But this coun- 
try, as though she had concealed some precious treasure, 
meets the traveller on the outskirts of her dominions, with 
pestilence and death. Yet, in the Highlands Avhich have 
been traversed, many unequivocal traces of former civili- 
zation have been discovered. Very lately, British cnterprize 
has made some important researches in that region of Coun- 
try, all of which go to prove that Homer did not misplace 
his regards for them, when he associated them with the 
Gods. 

The wife of Moses was an Ethiopian woman, and when 
Miriam, his sister, murmured against her, the Almighty 

•Rev. Beriah Green. 



11 

smote Miriam, and she became white. Whether the mur- 
muring arose on account of the complexion of the great 
Lawgiver's wife, or from some other cause, I will not at- 
tempt to determine. Whatever was the cause, we all see 
how Jehovah regarded it, how fierce was his indignation, 
and how terrible his punishment. He came down and 
stood in a cloudy pillar, and cursed the woman in whose 
bosom the unholy prejudice was harbored.* 

Ethiopia is one of the few nations whose destiny is spo- 
ken of in prophecy. This is done in language so plain that 
we are not driven to dubious inferences. 

It is said that "Princes shall come out of Egypt, and 
Ethiopia shall soon stretch out her hands unto God." It 
is thought by some that this divine declaration was fulfilled 
when Philip baptised the converted eunuch of the house- 
hold of Candes, the Queen of the Ethiopians. In this 
transaction, a part of the prophecy may have been fulfilled, 
and only a part. 

A vision seen by another prophet has become a matter 
of history. Hosea, foresaw that God would call his son out 
of Egypt, and when the infant Redeemer could find no 
shelter in the land of the Hebrews, he found an asylum in 
Egypt, where he remained until Herod was dead. He 
then returned to his native country, and in that event he 
fulfilled the declaration of the holy seer. 

Numerous other instances might be mentioned that would 
indicate the ancient fame of our ancestors. A fame, which 
arose from every virtue, and talent, that render mortals 
pre-eminently great. From the conquests of love and beau- 
ty, from the prowess of their arms, and their architecture, 
poetry, mathematics, generosity, and piety. I will barely 
allude to the beautiful Cleopatra, who swayed and capti- 
vated the heart of Anthony. To Hannibal, the sworn en- 

* Numbers, 12 chap. 10 v. 



12 

emy and the scourge of Rome — the mighty General who 
crossed the Alps to meet his foes — the Alps which had nev- 
er before been crossed by an army, nor never since, if we 
except Napoleon, the ambitious corsican. To Terence, 
Euclid, Cyprian, Origen, and Augustine. 

At this time, when these representatives of our race were 
filling the world with amazement, the ancestors of the now 
proud and boasting Anglo Saxons were among the most 
degraded of the human family. They abode in caves un- 
der grouod, either naked or covered with the skins of Avild 
beasts. Night was made hideous by their wild shouts, and 
day was darkened by the smoke which arose from bloody 
alters, upon which they offered human sacrifice. 

For a long series of years, immediately following her 
brilliant era, the history of Africa appears not to be ani- 
mated by many stiring events. Somewhere about the 
year of 1511, Charles V, of Spain, procured slaves from 
the coast of Guinea, and sent them to Hispaniola. Bar- 
tholemew Las Cassas, a Roman Catholic priest, and after- 
wards bishop Chioppa, came to this new world, which had 
just been called out of obscurity by the adventurous spirit 
of Christopher Columbus. He left Spain under the au- 
spices of Charles. The Castillian Monarch had enslaved 
the Indians who inhabited his dominions, but soon found 
that they were unprofitable in such a relation. Encouraged 
by his Clerical confident, his evil genius, he introduced in- 
to South America a number of slaves from Africa, because 
one black man could do as much labor as four Indians. 
Las Cassas, in mercy to the aborigines, recommended to 
Cardinal Ziincrnes, to enslave the children of Africa. 
The Cardinal, to his honor be it said, objected to the pro- 
ject, but nevertheless the trade went on. The number was 
at first limited at four thousand, but as might be expected 
this numerical boundry was soon over-steped. A trade 



13 

that was found to be so lucrative, was ultimately taken up 
by almost every Christian nation, until that unhappy coun- 
try was annually plundered of 300,000 of her children. 
Future generations will gaze upon the names of the guilty 
priest and King, in that contemptuous position Avhere they 
have placed themselves. Shame will deepen the hatred 
of their memory, as men become enlightened and just, 
and clouds of infamy will thicken around them as the world 
moves on toward God. 

In 1620, the very same year in which the Pilgrims lan- 
ded on the cold and rocky shores of New England, a Dutch 
ship freighted with souls touched the banks of James riv- 
er, where the wretched people were employed as slaves in 
the cultivation of that hateful weed, tobacco. Wonderful 
coincidence ! The angel of liberty hovered over New 
England, and the Demon of slavery unfurled his black flag 
over the fields of the "sunny south." 

But latterly the slave-trade has been pronounced to be 
piracy by most all of the civilized world. Great Britain 
has discarded the chattel principle throughout her domin- 
ions. In 1824 Mexico proclaimed freedom to her slaves. 
The Pope of Rome, and the sovereigns of Turkey, and 
Denmark, and other nations bow at the shrine of Liberty. 
But France has laid the richest ofli'ering upon the alter of 
freedom, that has been presented to God in these latter 
days. In achieving her almost bloodless revolution, she 
maintained an admirable degree of consistency. The 
same blast of the trumpet of Liberty that rang through the 
halls of the Tulleries, and shattered the throne of the 
Bourbons, also reached the shores of her remotest colo- 
nies, and proclaimed the redemption of every slave that 
moved on French soil. Thus does France remember the 
paternal advice of La Fayette, and atone for the murder 
of Tousaint. Thanks be to God, the lilly is cleansed of 



14 

the blood that stained it. The nations of the earth will 
gaze with delight upon its democratic purity, wherever it 
shall be seen. Whether in the grape-grown valleys where 
it first bloomed, or in the Isles of Bourbon, Gaudaloupe, 
Martinique, or in Guinna.* The colored people of St. 
Bartholomews, who were emancipated by a decree of the 
King of Sweden last year, have lately sent an address to 
their Liberator. Hayti, by the heroism of her Oge, Tou- 
saint, La-Overture, Dessalines, Christophe, Petion, and 
Boyer, have driven the demon of slavery from that island, 
and have hurried his carcase in the sea. 

Briefly, and imperfectly have I noticed the former condi- 
tion of the colored race. Let us turn for a moment to sur- 
vey our present state. The woeful volume of our history as 
it now lies open to the world, is written with tears and 
bound in blood. As I trace it my eyes ache and my 
heart is filled with grief. No other people have suffered 
so much, and none have been more innocent. If I might 
apostsophize, that bleeding country I would say, O Africa! 
thou has bled, freely bled, at every pore ! Thy sorrow has 
been mocked, and thy grief has not been heeded. Thy 
children are scattered over the whole earth, and the great 
nations have been enriched by them. The wild beasts of 
thy forests are treated with more mercy than they. The 
Lybian lion and the fierce tiger are caged to gratify the 
curiosity of men, and the keeper's hands are not laid 
heavily upon them. But thy children are tortured, taun- 
ted, and hurried out of life by unprecedented cruelty. 
Brave men formed in the divincsl mould, arc bartered, sold 
and mortgaged. Stripped of every sacred right, they are 
scourged if they affirm that they belong to God. Women 
sustaining the dear relation of mothers, are yoked with the 
horned cattle to till the soil, and their heart strings are 

»Tho whole number of slaves in the Ficnch Colonics were almost :)00,nuU. 



15 

torn to pieces by cruel separations from their children. 
Our sisters ever manifesting the purest kindness, whether 
in the wilderness of their father-land, or amid the sorrows 
of the middle passage, or in crowded cities, are unprotec- 
ted from the lusts of tyrants. They have a regard for 
virtue, and they possess a sense of honor, but there is no 
respect paid to these jewels of noble character. Driven 
into unwilling concubinage, their offspring are sold by their 
Anglo Saxon fathers. To them the marriage institution 
is but a name, for their despoilers break down the hymeni- 
al alter and scatter its sacred ashes on the winds. 

Our young men are brutalized in intellect, and their 
manly energies are chilled by the frosts of slavery. Some- 
times they are called to witness the agonies of the moth- 
ers who bore them writing under the lash, and as if to fill 
up to overflowing the already full cup of demonism, they 
are sometimes compelled to apply the lash with their own 
hands. Hell itself cannot overmatch a deed like this, — 
and dark damnation shudders as it sinks into its bosom, 
and seeks to hide itself from the indignant eye of God. 

" They till ompression's soil where men, 

For liberty have bled, 
And the eagle wing of freedom waves. 

In mockery overhead. 
The earth is filled with the triumph shouts 

Of men who have burst their chains, 
But theirs the heaviest of them all 

"Still lay on their burning veins. 

In the tyrants halls there are luxury. 

And wealth, and mental hght. 
But the very book of the Christian law. 

Is hidden from their sight. 
In the tyrants halls there are wine, and mirth. 

And songs for the newly free. 
But their own low cabins are desolate, 

Of all but misery. 



16 

Spain, who gave the first impulse and royal sanction to 
the slave trade, still clings to her idolatry. It rests as a 
plague spot upon the faces of her people. A case lately 
ordered before the United States Supreme Court, by one 
of her subjects, and favored by President Van Buren, se- 
cured one of the most important decisions ever given in 
this Nation. I allude to the case of the Armistad, whose 
whole cargo of souls were emancipated on the high seas, 
by the heroism of the chieftain Joseph Cinque. He arose 
in the strength of his manhood, and slew the captain, and 
imprisoned the crew, as they were pursuing their course 
from Havanna to Matanzas. Being unacquainted with 
navigation, he commanded the seamen to steer towards the 
sun-rise, knowing that his native country was in the East. 
But the sky becoming cloudy, the traders directed the ves- 
sel towards the American coast, expecting to find favor and 
assistance from their fellow bandits and brother pirates in 
this country. But in this they were mistaken, for justice 
triumphed. When the woe-freighted bark neared our 
coast, and Cinque saw the star-spangled banner floating in 
the breeze, it was then that the hero addressed his despair- 
ing comrades, while a triumphant smile played upon his 
face, and said, " Brothers, 2oe would have conquered, bid 
the sun luas against us^ A sentence more heroic was ne- 
ver uttered by an untutored savage. 

It may be asked, why did he despair when he saw the 
flag of our country ? Here is the answer, and be not sur- 
prised at it. Because he had seen it waving protectively 
from the masts of slavers, when freedom owned him as 
her child, and when he breathed her spirit on his native 
hills. 

The slave trade is carried on briskly in the beautiful is- 
land of Cuba. A few years ago, I witnessed the landing 
of a cargo of slaves, fresh from the coast of Africa, in the 



17 

port of Havanna, in the presence of the Governor, and un- 
der the shadow of the Moro Castle, one of the strongest 
fortifications of the world. 

Recently, a great sacrifice has been made in that Island 
to the Spirit of despotism, in the death of the Patriot and 
Poet, Placido. Freedom mourns over his early tomb. 
TheAvaves of the Atlantic, of whose vastness and sublim- 
ity he had sung, chaunted his dirge as the tyrants hid him 
in the grave ! Placido was a mulatto, a true Poet, and of 
course a Patriot. His noble soul was moved with pity as 
he saw his fellow men in chains. Born to feel, and to act, 
he made a bold attempt to effect a revolution, and failing 
in it, he fell a martyr to his principles. 

On the day previous to his death, he wrote the following 
lines, of which Coolridge or Montgomery would not have 
been ashamed. They present a blaze of poetic fire, in- 
tense and sublime : — 

" Liberty ! I wait for thee, 
To break this chain, and dungeon bar ; 
I hear thy voice calling me. 
Deep in the frozen North, afar, 
With voice like God's, and vision like a star. 

Long cradled in the mountain wind, • 

Thy mates, the eagle and the storm 
Arise ; and from thy brow unbind 
The wreath that gives its starry form, 
And smite the strength, that would thy strength deform. 

Yet Liberty ! thy dawning light, 
Obscured by dungeon bars, shall cast 
A splendor on the breaking night, 
• And tyrants flying thick and fast. 

Shall tremble at thy gaze, and stand aghast." 

The next day they led Placido forth to execution, and 

from the mouths of bristling musketry a shower of lead 

was poured upon his quivering heart. That heart stood 

still, — and a truer, braver one, never beat in the breast of 

a mortal man ! 

o 



18 

The Brazillian Government holds three millions of the 
colored race in slavery. The United States have about the 
same number. The Spanish Colonies have one million. 

But it is proper to turn the other side of the picture 
and I rejoice that there is another side. Nine hundred 
thousand of these people are enjoying then* freedom in the 
British West India Isles. There are six hundred thousand 
free people in the United States, while in Hayti we have an 
independent population of nearly a million. Possessing a 
land of unsurpassed fertility, they have but to turn their 
attention manfully to Agricultural pursuits and it will shine 
forth the brightest Isle that slumbers in the arms of old 
ocean. 

In regard to the enslavement of our race, this Country 
presents as mournful a picture as any other beneath the 
sun ; but still it is not hopelessly enshrouded in darkness. 
The good institutions of the land are well adapted to the 
developement of the mind. So far as the oppressed shall 
make their own way towards them, and shall escape the 
influence of those that are evil, so far shall they succeed in 
throwing off their bitter thraldom, and in wrenching the 
scourge from the hands of tyranny. 

Slavery has done much to ruin us, and we ourselves have 
done some things which effect the same. Perhaps the evils 
of which I am about to speak arise from slavery, and are 
the things without which the system cannot exist. But 
nevertheless we must contribute largely towards their over- 
throw. If it is in our power to destroy these evils, and 
we do not, then much of our own blood will be found on us. 

We are divided by party feuds, and are torn in pieces by 
dissensions. Some men have ]n-ostituted good talents, for 
the base purpose of kindling the fires of discord. Some 
who officiated in the temples said to be dedicated to God, 
are idolaters to sectarianism. And some too would draw 



19 

a line of blood distinction, and would form factions upon 
the shallow basis of complexion. But I am glad to know 
that the number of this class is small, and small as it is, I 
pray that we may soon be able to write a cypher in its 
place. Let there be no strife between us, for we are breth- 
ren, and we must rise or fall together. How unprofitable 
it is for us to spend our golden moments in long and solemn 
debate upon the questions whether Ave shall be called ^^ Af- 
ricans'^ " Colored Americans ^^^ or " Africo Americans ^''^ or 
" Blacks.'^ The question should be, my friends, shall ive 
arise and act like men, and cast off this terrible yoke ? 
Many are too apt to follow after shams, and to neglect that 
which is solids. Thousands are often expended for an 
hours' display of utter emptiness, which ought to be laid 
aside to increase our wealth, and for the acquirement of 
knowledge, and for the promotion of education. Socie- 
ties, called benevolent, frequently squander more money 
for the purchase of banners and badges, and in feasting, 
than they use in acts of charity. What are regalia and oth- 
er trappings worth, if they signify nothing but sham and 
parade ? In 1846, $5000 were paid by the oppressed Co- 
lored people at the Temperance Celebration held in Pough- 
keepsie, N. Y., and yet we do not adequately support a 
single Newspaper in the United States. 

The first of August meeting, held in Canandaigua, in 
1847, cost the same class not less than $10,000 ; and yet 
we do not find a hundred of our young men and women in 
our high-schools and colleges. The gorgeous pageant of e 
the Odd Fellows in October 1847, drew from the pockets 
of the people, at a very moderate calculation, the sum of 
$8000, while many of their offspring who ought to be 
drinking at the fountain of learning, are mourning by the 
turbid and cold waters of servile employments. /The Free 
AND ACCEPTED Masons can boast nothing over other fraterni- 



20 

ties in regard lo unnecessary expenditures. The Masons 
have led off in this course of wastefulness, and a majority of 
the other institutions are but children of the great original, 
and they resemble their parent more or less. Let no one 
say that I seek the destruction of these Institutions. I de- 
sire rather to remove the unfruitful branches of the trees, 
that it may be ascertained whether their trunks are capable 
of bearing good fruit. If they can produce good, if there 
is life in the stock, let them remain that they may be beau- 
tified by the dresser's hands. But if the roots arc corrupt, 
and their branches cast a deadly shade, let them be cut 
down, for why should they cumber the ground ? 

May God grant, that we may betake ourselves to great- 
er wisdom and frugality. I know that the oppressed above 
all other people need holidays, and pastimes, but in no 
case should we bid adieu to our common sense. Let all 
be careful, lest in this age of ribbon, velvet and gold lace 
revival, that we do not fall into fanaticism. Fanatics some- 
times have strange visions, and it would be strange, "pass- 
ing strange," should any considerable portion of a whole 
race imagine themselves in a world of ribbons, painted 
sticks, and vanity without measure. 

We ought to have our monster meetings, but Ave should 
assemble with the same spirit, that animated the Irish peo- 
ple, when they were led by that giant of freedom Daniel 
O'Connell, which should be, to use his own words, 
to "agitate, and agitate, and agitate until the chains 
of the three million's are broken. " A half })enny's 
worth of green ribbon and a sprig of shamrock signi- 
fied to the Irishman more than all the gaudy trappings of 
a Grand Master, or a Prince of Jerusalem. These little 
things represented a grand princij)le to the minds of the 
u\icon([ucrable sons of Erin. The principles of jirog't'ess in 
the wai/s of tnd/i, and resislencc to tyranny should be the 



21 

bases of all our public demonstrations, and numerical rep- 
resentations. 

We should have likewise, days of bitter bread, and tab- 
ernacle in the wilderness, in which to remember our grief- 
worn brothers and sisters. They are now pleading with 
million tongues against those Avho have dispoiled "them. 
They cry from gory fields— from pestilential rice swamps— 
from cane breaks, and forests-from plantations of cotton 
and tabacco-from the dark holds of slave ships, and from 
countless acres where the sugar cane, nods to the sighing 
wmds. They lift up their voices from all the land over 
which the flag of our country floats. From the banks of 
our silver streams, and broad rivers, from our valleys and 
sloping hills, and mountain tops ! 

The silence that reigns in the region where the pale na- 
tions of the earth slumber, is solemn, and awful. But 
what think ye, when you are told that every rood of land 
in this Union is the grave of a murdered man, and their 
epitaphs are written upon the monuments of the nation's 
wealth. Ye destroyers of my people draw near, and read 
the mournful inscription ; aye ! read it, until it is daguero- 
typed on your souls. " You have slain us all the day 
long— you have had no mercy." Legions of hao-^ard 
ghosts stalk through the land. Behold ! see, they come • 
Oh what myriads ! Hark ! hear their broken bones as they 
clatter together! With deep unearthly voices they cry 
'' We come, Ave come ! for vengeance we come ! Tremble, 
guilty nation, for the God of Justice lives and reigns.'' 
The screaming of the eagle as he darts through lightning 
and storm is unheard because of these voices. The toe- 
sin of the sabbath, and the solemn organ are mocked by 
them. They drown the preacher's voice, and produce 
discord in the sacred choirs. Sworn senators and perju- 
red demagogues, as they officiate around the alter of Mo- 



22 

loch in the national capitol, they hear the waitings of the 
victims of base born democracy, and they are ill at ease 
in their unexampled hypocracy. The father of waters, 
may roar in his progress to the ocean— the Niagara may 
thunder, but these voices from the living and the dead, rise 
above them all. 

Such, ladies and gentlemen, are the outlines of the pic- 
ture of the Colored Race throughout the world. Behind 
us and on either side are waste places, and deserts, but 
before us are green spots and living springs. 

The genius of slavery in this country has taken his course 
southward. It has passed its Rubicon,, the far distant Sa- 
bine. Infatuated with its victories, it has pressed forward 
to the sandy shores of the Neuces, where it paused but 
for a moment. It has Texas and moves on beyond the 
Rio Del Norte. 

" Six slave states added at a breath ! one flourish of r. pen. 

And fetters are riveted on millions more of men, 

How all the damned leap up, and half forget their fire. 

To think men take such pains to claim the notice of God's ire." 

Nor has it been satisfied when all this was done. It has 
laid its hands upon the nation's standard, and has urged its 
way through flood, and field, until that blood-stained ban- 
ner waves on the halls of the Montazumas. It claims its 
victories on the ensanguined plains of Monterey, Cero Gor- 
do, Chepultepec, Churubusco, and Beuna Vista, and hangs 
out its stiffened and gory garments from the old grey 
walls of Vera Cruz. These are but a part of slavery's 
conquests on this continent. It is among the things that 
are possible that these triumphs are defeats in disguise. 
"God taketh the wise in their own craftiness, and the coun- 
sel of the ungodly carries headlong." I would not 
dispair of the triumph of freedom in the hemisphere, were 
Mexico to be annexed to this union. For one I would 



23 

welcome my dark-browed and liberty-loving brethren to 
our embrace. Aye ! let them come with the population of 
seven and a half millions. One fifth of that number are 
white, and they are ultra Abolitionists. Two fifths are In- 
dians, and the other two fifths are of the black, and mixed 
races. I repeat it, I should not dispair if they should come. 

The dominions of slavery are directly between Northern 
and Southern freedom — between Eastern and Western 
Democracy. In the East the sons of New England are 
waking up at freedom's call, among the tombs of their fa- 
thers. 

"Grey Plymouth's Rock hath yet a tongue, and Concord is not dumb." 

The men of the North begin to appreciate the doctrine 
which has been long inculcated, that in order to be free 
themselves, they must emancipate the bondmen. The young 
lion of the West has torn the net of voluntary servitude, 
and gives signs of his latent strength. "The peculiar In- 
stitution " is doomed. President Polk sees this, and he 
spares neither blood, nor treasure to save it. Mr. John C. 
Calhoun is aware of it, and like some mighty Collossus, 
he stands astride the dark and troubled#vaters of his dar- 
ling system, and like a frightened girl, appeals piteously to 
his brethren of the North and the South, to come to the 
rescue, and save him from a humiliating downfall. His 
predicament is pictured, very correctly by the gifted and 
devoted Bard of Liberty, John Greeleaf Whittier. 

•' Where's now the boast, which even thy guarded tongue, 

Cold, calm, and proud, in the teeth o' the senate flung. 

O'er the fulfillment of thy baleful plan. 

Like Satan's triumph, at the fall of man? 

How stood'st thou then, thy foot on Freedom planting, 

And pointing to the lurid heaven afar. 

Whence all could see through the south window's slanting. 

Crimson as blood, the beams of the Lone star : 



24 

The Fates are just ; they give us but our own ; 

Nemesis ripens what our hands have sown. 

There is an eastern story, not unknown, 

Doubtless to thee, of one whose magic skill , 

Call'd demons up his water jars to fill ; 

Deftly, and silently they did his will. 

But when the task was done kept pouring still. 

In vain with spell, and charm the wizard wrought. 

Faster and faster were the buckets brought. 

Higher, and higher rose the flood around, 

Till the fiends clapped their hands above their master drowned. 

New and startling scenes are passing before us continual- 
ly. No man of common sense, Avill declare to-day, that he 
will not be on the side of freedom to-morrow. All the 
while the Colored race, are increasing in a ratio unprece- 
dented in the history of any oppressed people. 

^' The Spaniard conquered Mexico three hundred years 
ago. His impress is scarcely preceptible upon it. Many 
of the chiefs of the country are mixed blood, some of them 
pure Indian, while the population, as a whole, is altogeth- 
er mongrel. 

But there is another race (the negro) "parallel, co-rela- 
tive, and inter-mixed with the Anglo-American. Include 
Texas, and go from the East boundary of the Louisiana 
purchase, to the Rio Grande, thus : 



Colored Race, 


1820. 


1830. 


1845. 


Louisiana. 


79,500 


■ 124,000 


245,000 


Missouri, 


10,550 


27,000 


71,851 


Arkansas, 


1,677 


5,000 


40,000 


Texas, 


0,000 


5,000 


50,000 



Total, 91,727 161,000 406,851 

The slaves keep pace with the whites I If carried into 
Mexico, their masters bring a colored race, and find one 
there I The oppressive burdens of slavery, therefore, will 
keep down Anglo-American progress in that direction I" 

Cincinnati Chronicle. 



25 

Who iiS there, after looking at these facts, will question 
the probability of the assumption, that this republic, and 
this continent, are to be the theatre in which the grand drn- 
ma of our triumphant Destiny is to be enacted. 

The Red men of North America are retreating from the 
approach of the white man. They have fallen like trees 
on the ground in which they first took root, and on the soil 
which their foliage once shaded. Rut the Colored race, 
although they have been transplanted in a foreign land, 
have clung to and grown with their oppressors, as the wild 
ivy entwines around the trees of the forest, nor can they 
be torn thence. At this moment when so much feigned 
hatred is manifested toward us, our blood is mixed with 
every tribe from Cape Horn to the Frozen Ocean. Skillful 
men have set themselves to work at analyzation, and yet 
in many cases they are perplexed in deciding where to 
draw the line between the Negro and the Anglo-Saxon. 
Whatever our colorless brethren say of themselves, so far 
do they proclaim our future position. Do they say in 
proud exultation, 

" No pent up Utica contracts our powers, 
The whole boundless continent is ours," 

in this they bespeak our destiny. 

There are those who, either from good or evil motives, 
plead for the Utopian plan of the Colonization of a wdiole 
race to the shores of Africa. We are noAv colonized. 
We are planted here, and we cannot as a whole people, 
be re-colonized back to our fatherland. It is too late to 
make a successful attempt to separate the black and white 
people in the New World. They love one another too 
much to endure a separation. Where one is, there will the 
other be also. Kuth, of the Old Testament, puts the re- 
solve of our destiny in our mouths, which we will repeat 
to those who would expatriate us : " Entreat me not to 



26 

leave thee nor return from following after thee, for whither 
thou goest I will go, and where thou lodgest I will lodge ; 
thy people shall be my people, and thy God shall be my 
God. Where thou diest there will I die, and there will I 
be buried. The Lord do so to me, and more, if aught 
but death part thee and me." 

Tills western ivorld is destined to be filled with a mixed 
race. Statesmen, distinguished for their forecast, have 
gravely said that the blacks must either be removed, or 
such as I have stated will be the result. It is a stubborn 
fact, that it is impossible to separate the pale man and the 
man of color, and therefore the result which to them is so 
fearful, is inevitable. All this the wiser portion of the 
Colonizationists see, and they labor to hinder it. It mat- 
ters not whether we abhor or desire such a consummation, 
it is now too late to change the decree of nature and cir- 
cumstances. As well might we attempt to shake the Al- 
leghanies with our hands, or to burst the rock of Gibralter 
with our fists. If the colored people should all consent to 
leave this country, on the day of their departure there 
would be sore lamentations, the like of which the world 
has not heard since Rachel wept for her children, and 
would not be comforted, because ifhey were not. We 
would insist upon taking all who have our generous and 
prolific blood in their veins. In such an event, the Amer- 
ican church and state would be bereaved. The Reverend 
Francis L. Hawks, D. D., of the Protestant Episcopal 
Church, a man who is receiving the largest salary of any 
divine in the country, would be called upon to make the 
sacrifice of leaving a good living, and to share the fate of 
his brethren according to the flesh. The Reverend Dr. 
INIurpiiy, of Herkimer, N. Y., a Presbyterian, would be 
compelled to leave his beloved flock ; and how could they 
endure the loss of a shepherd so eloquent, so faithful and 



27 

so kind. We should be burdened Avith that renegade ne- 
gro of the United States Senate, Mr. Yulee, of Florida. 
We should take one of the wives of Senator Samuel Hous- 
ton. The consort, — the beautiful Cleopatra of his Excel- 
lency, R. M. Johnson, late Democratic Vice President of 
this great nation, — would be the foremost in the vast compa- 
ny of exiles. After we all should return to tread the golden 
sands of Africa, whether we would add to the morality of 
our kindred across the deep waters future generations 
would decide. One thing I am certain of, and that is, many 
of the slaveholders and lynchers of the South are not very 
moral now. Our cousins of the tribe of Shem are wel- 
come to our deserters. If they are enriched by them 
they may be assured that we are not impoverished. 

On the other continent, the destiny of the colored peo- 
ple will be similar to that of the people among whom they 
are scattered. Colorphobia is confined almost entirely to 
the United States and the Canadas. We speak of preju- 
dice against color, but in fact, nothing of the kind exists. 
The prejudice is against the condition alone. Were not 
this the case the American feeling would pervade the 
whole earth. 

Many things that were intended for evil to us, will re- 
sult, I trust, in good. The tyrants have debarred us from 
the wealth accruing from trade and commerce. This is an 
evil. But may it not be hoped that we are their juniors in 
the art of cheating ? We have among us some arrant 
cheats, but it is presumed that but a few will doubt that 
our white brothers bear off the palm in this department of 
human depravity. The besetting sins of the Anglo-Saxon 
race are, the love of gain and the love of power. In ma- 
ny instances, while our services could be dispensed with, 
we have not been permitted to join the army, and of course 
have not been killed in the wars. We have been driven 



28 

from the sanctuaries where our oppressors worship, and it 
may be that we are not quite as hypocritical as their prac- 
tices have made them. When the great national account 
shall be rendered before the tribunal of Justice, the guilt 
of course must be borne by those who might have had, or 
who have used the power of the government. There may, 
therefore, be some good that may come out of this evil. 
But no thanks to the evil doers. Their Avorks are evil still, 
the good conies in spite of them. 

The old doctrine of the natural inferiority of the color- 
ed race, propagated in America by Mr. Thomas Jefferson, 
has long since been refuted by Dr. John Mason Goode, 
and numerous respectable witnesses from among the slan- 
dered, both living and dead : Pushkin in Russia, Dumas 
in France, Toussaint in Hayti, Banaker, Theodore Sedg- 
wick Wright, and a host in America, and a brilliant galaxy 
in Ancient History. 

There are blessings in store for our patient, suffering 
race, — there is light and glory. The star of our hope is 
slowly and steadily rising above the horizon. As a land 
that has long been covered by storm and clouds, and sha- 
ken by the thunder, Avhen the storms and clouds had passed 
away, and the thunder was succeeded by a calm, like that 
which cheered the first glad morning, and flower and shrub 
smiled as they looked up to God, and the mountains, plains 
and valleys rung with joy, — so shall this race come forth 
and re-occupy their station of renown. 

But how shall we hasten on that period ? How shall 
we acquit ourselves on the field where the great battle is 
to be fought ? By following after peace and temperance, 
industry and frugality, and love to God, and to all men, 
and by resisting tyranny in the name of Eternal Justice. 
We must also become acquainted with the arts and sciences. 



b 



29 

and agricultural pursuits. These will elevate any people 
and sever any chain. 

We must also cherish and maintain a national and patri- 
otic sentiment and attachment. Some people of color say 
that they have no home, no country. I am not among 
that number. It is empty declamation. It is unwise. It 
is not logical — it is false. Of all the people in this wide 
earth, among the countless hordes of misery, there is not 
one so poor as to be without a home and a country. Amer- 
ica is my home, my country, and I have no other. I love 
whatever of good there may be in her institutions. I hate 
her sins. I loathe her slavery, and I pray Heaven that ere 
long she may wash avv'ay her guilt in tears of repentance. 
I love the green-hills which my eyes first beheld in my in- 
fancy. I love every inch of soil which my feet pressed in 
my youth, and I rnourn because the accursed shade of 
slavery rests upon it. I love my country's flag, and I hope 
that soon it will be cleansed of its stains, and be hailed by 
all nations as the emblem of freedom and independence. 






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